Speakeasies

Speakeasies

Speakeasies were illegal bars that were opened during the prohibition time period. They were located in the back of every day stores, like flower shops, and in the bottoms of hard ware stores. In many small towns, small speakeasies were operated by local business owners as a way of making extra money. These family secrets were often kept even after prohibition ended. The term blind pig (or blind tiger ) originated in the U.S in the1900’s it was applied to businesses that sold liquor illegally. At the speakeasies moon shine which was alcohol made in a bath tub was distributed while people gambled, and drank. Most of the speakeasies had an eye slot where one of the people in charge would inspect the person urging to enter the speakeasy. Many speakeasies were successful, but had many problems. Problems like the money they spent on the liquor, and the services to make it. Many speakeasy owners found themselves indebt the average speakeasy owner spent around 2,000 dollars a month. The term may developed from the bartenders who told the customer ordering an alcoholic drink to not raise suspicion. Bartenders would tell customers to be quiet and “speak easy” so customers could not have the freedom to talk about alcohol, without any fear that a government official might be listening in on the conversation.A speakeasy in Ny was the Back Room. In order to get in you had to look for a sign on a metal gate that reads “Lower East Side Toy Co.” Enter, go through an alley, climb a couple of metal steps to an unmarked door, and if there’s no bouncer, let yourself in. The back room was an underground speakeasy in the back of an underground toy shop called the east side toy company in New York City in the 1920’s. The speakeasy was very secretive the entrance was through a book case that was turned in to a door as shown above in this picture.

For More Information go to, [] or []